Creatively Thinking

  Featured image: Birthday Cake My half birthday was on July 21. I am hoping that the next six months, and the years that will follow, will bring no fear, no worries, no hatred, no hesitation—just love, just wonder, and the sheer joy of exploration and discovery. Of course, I have always had that dream, but as I move closer to having fewer days on earth, I want to think of those days as treasures, as days of always finding …………………. God's grace, beauty, and love, and walking away from everything that isn't that. I just read something that says what I am trying to say so beautifully. Calling myself an "artist" is not something I am comfortable with lately. It feels like a judgment call that I prefer those who view my work to make. For convenience, I call myself an artist, but, you know, for me it is either a "huge" word that carries a lot of mystery and wonderful meaning, or a very small word that has lost all its meaning. Lately, I don't know which one fo...

  Featured image: Mom's Jitterbug Mom’s Jitterbugs are blooming this year, and they were glistening and sparkling with diamonds from the morning dew. The Jitterbugs don’t seem to bloom every year. I don’t know why. They are yellow-brown irises. I really don’t know why they have the name Jitterbug, but it certainly is a fun name. I understand that when I first looked them up, I learned there is an orchid that looks quite a bit like Mom’s iris called the Mendenhall. Now that I have seen it, perhaps it would be fun to try and raise this orchid just to have this memory of my mom around all year. I used to raise orchids, but they kind of got out of hand. I had about 20 of them growing, and just watering them was a full-time job. But then I digress from the original story of the Jitterbug. Anyway, as I was having coffee this morning and looking over the gardens and wondering which flower would be the first to bloom and show color this spring, there was Mom’s Jitterbug. I was so delighted...

  Featured image: Little Bit of Sunshine There is a single patch of sun in the middle of the lawn. The lawn has dewdrops that sparkle. The grass is quite long. It should have been mowed yesterday, but it wasn’t. Oh well. I went to the farmers market yesterday, the first time in a long time. It was fun. I got some maple syrup, nice-smelling soap, and some exotic mushrooms. And I talked to some very nice folks. I think that was my favorite part. The mushrooms had fun names, like Lion’s Mane, which I bought to go with a dinner of eggs and bagels. I also bought the bagels from the vendor next to the mushroom vendor. It was a great morning, and I didn’t get home until four that afternoon because I also went antiquing! Of course.

  Featured image: Black Feather "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way." — Georgia O'Keeffe

  Featured image: It's A Beautiful Morning Brilliant lime-green oak leaves Drooping So young, yet So new Brilliant This morning They weren’t there Yesterday The woods Are a nursery Of different Baby greens

  I’m grateful and honored to share that my painting Roots II has been accepted into TREE II: Breath of Humanity , an online exhibition presented by Verum Ultimum Art Gallery. Trees have always held a special place in my imagination. Nature has been my greatest teacher, and I’m continually inspired by the quiet strength of trees—their deep roots, their resilience, and their constant reaching toward the light. They remind us that growth begins beneath the surface and that what sustains us is often unseen. In Roots II , I wanted to reflect on those hidden connections that nourish and anchor us, while reminding us that growth is both an inward and outward journey. I’m honored to have this work included in an exhibition celebrating the many ways trees symbolize life, spirit, connection, and renewal. Thank you to Verum Ultimum Art Gallery for this meaningful opportunity and for bringing together artists from around the world to explore such a timeless theme. The online exhibition is no...

    Featured image:   Fences “FREEDOM lies just beyond the fences we build around ourselves.”  James Nathan Muir

  Featured image: Coffee in the Rain It’s raining this morning, and I hear the rain on the umbrella. Such small things, such gentle music. Critters are sleeping this morning. Russian irises are beginning to bloom, and the peonies are showing signs of pink and are ready to bloom. Love the colors.

  Featured image: Hummer VI The pine tree shoots are almost 8" A different color green Lilies in the garden blooming Lilacs are blooming All this color overwhelms. The peonies need pinning back. They are about to burst. Little chipmunks are stuffing whirligigs into their cheeks, which are exploding. In goes another one. Amazing. The things that you notice sitting still The only thing moving is your pen. A hummer buzzed me. So still.

  Featured image: Sculpture - Wings Have you ever just thought about the air? I know I haven’t. It’s just there. It’s invisible. Yet, if you really think about it, it is so important. Things like air just pop into my head sometimes—like this morning. Without air, birds couldn’t fly. Their wings would be useless. Birds could not take flight. So what’s the use of wanting to be able to fly if there were no air? You have to have faith to take that first step from the nest, spread your wings, and fly. It takes courage. There is nothing there—just air!!! After all, if I stepped off the top of a flight of stairs and spread my arms out, I certainly wouldn’t fly like a bird. Gosh darn.

  Featured image: The Real and The Imagined One of the things I really love about being an artist is that I can create a space that exists just beyond a fixed reality. I can experience life, see life differently. Some people cannot accept “differently,” but then there are those who do—those who move toward this different reality. I can feel them when they visit the studio—the minute they walk through the door and their eyes light up. And besides asking where the bathroom is, they ask questions right away. “How did you…?” And it doesn’t stop until they walk out the door. It’s the imagination that triggers that first question.

Featured image: Daffodils In A Vase with Yellow Stripes The waiting for that first drop of color to appear in the gardens this year has ended. Oh, not the ones I planted, like the marigolds and the impatiens, but the ones that sprout up from the earth. Once the color that rises from the earth appears, then I know that summer has arrived. Just like when I shed my socks, paint my toes red, and put on sandals, then I know summer has arrived. So it has happened. The daffodils have bloomed, the Russian irises are almost here, my mom’s irises are here, and my socks are gone for the season. Yea!!!!

  Featured image: Roller Coaster Ride Have We Become Nothing More Than Wind-Up Toys? I have been thinking about this idea for some time now, ever since I started doing 3-D work about this time last year. This idea has become something special, an idea that has been ruminating in my head for over a year, ever since I began gathering antique wind-up toys. I am naturally afraid to start it, though, because the idea is soooo big. I think I might have already painted it, and it has been in my head for over 15 years. The work I did a long time ago called Roller Coaster Ride was red and very, very big. Some of you have seen it, and some of you haven’t. I was saving it for so long—not knowing why—but I sold it last year to a very, very special couple, and we helped them hang it. When I saw where it was hung, I knew the minute we hung it that it belonged there, in their lovely home, with all their other wonderfully collected art. I knew I had made the right decision to sell it. But now—can...

  Featured image: Hawk III I’m honored and grateful to share that my painting Hawk III has been accepted into the San Diego Watercolor Society’s 46th International Exhibition. This year’s exhibition received 671 entries from 345 artists representing 20 countries and 35 states. From this remarkable field of work, juror Ana Laura Salazar selected just 105 paintings for inclusion. I’m deeply honored that Hawk III will be among them. For as long as I can remember, birds have found their way into my work. Nature has always been my greatest teacher, and the hawk’s soaring perspective reminds us to rise above the immediate and see with greater clarity. In Hawk III , I wanted to capture not only the beauty and power of this remarkable bird, but also the spirit it represents—the courage to rise above challenges and trust one's vision. Thank you to juror Ana Laura Salazar, the San Diego Watercolor Society, and everyone involved in organizing this exceptional international exhibition. I’m g...

Featured image: Thrush II I find that my connection to birds gives me the feeling I need to imagine and understand what the air is like that allows birds to fly, but doesn’t allow me to fly except in my imagination. The idea that they travel so far and can stir my imagination through something invisible called air—AIR. This air is magical, mystical, and symbolic for me when I think about it, because I can never really see it, but I know it is there. Birds can take flight in it at any time. Take flight into my mystical, magical space. Science can, at times, make it visible to me—but it is not the same. Not the same as a bird spreading its wings and taking off and flying. I can’t spread my arms and take off into the air. It just can’t happen. Dragons used to. Well, they tell me they used to be able to. We don’t see dragons anymore. Do they only happen in our imagination now? Gosh, I need to close my eyes and click my ruby slippers together twice and ask to go home.

Featured image: Sunrise in the Morning at the Lake For some reason, I woke up earlier than usual this morning and looked across the lake and saw the lovely, wonderful orange, pink, and yellow sunrise glowing just everywhere. I mean everywhere, just everywhere. I couldn’t stand it. I just had to get up, make coffee, and go to the other side of the house and watch the sun rise through the trees in the woods. What is it about starting the day with a cup of coffee and watching the sun rise? It just fills your heart and soul until it is about to burst. And you try to put some of these wonderful sensations in your treasure box to save them for a rainy day, and there just isn’t enough room. Gosh. Memories. Happy memories. Written down, I rarely get beyond them—little fragments from here and there. One that always comes to mind is the last day of a canoeing trip. We got up quickly and cleaned up the tent, rolled up our sleeping bags, made coffee, and, with mugs in hand, walked up the hill. We ...

  Featured image:  Daffodils In A Vase with Yellow Stripes I cut some daffodils from my garden yesterday and put them in a vase. This really is one of the first years I have been able to do that. Usually, the deer get them first. They look so cute on my kitchen windowsill in a tall vase with yellow stripes. It brings a smile to my face just writing about them. I think daffodils are supposed to do that, aren’t they? “She turned to the sunlight And shook her yellow head, And whispered to her neighbor: ‘Winter is dead.’” — A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young If one pleasure is worth a thousand daffodils, then one is too few. — Wordsworth

  Featured image: Straight from the Heart “I cannot expect even my own art to provide all the answers—only to hope it keeps asking the right questions.” — Wassily Kandinsky

Featured image: Intersections II We seem to be slowly moving into summer. This year I would describe summer's arrival as a slow, quiet slide. Even the blackbirds are quiet. And I am gently moving back into mark-making. I have a new way of creating, and it is triggering new thinking, which is always wonderful. It’s the weaving in my work that seems to be triggering ideas. Even though my weaving isn’t the kind of weaving that all blends, one color into another, as though each thread has a place, rather each thread clings to its neighbor and finds comfort, even though they are not the same. The weaving may appear chaotic and abstract, but it is not, for each thread has a purpose and a connection to whatever is next to it. The connection is the glue that holds the weaving together. For me, it is the invisible divine that connects. I have given up trying to see the divine and trying to describe what I cannot see. But I can feel it. Most of us can feel it and, like myself, can’t put the ...

  Featured image: Nature's Truth “…and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?” — Vincent van Gogh

  Featured image: Study of Rose Breasted Woodpecker The woodpecker keeps tap tap tapping. Listening to the rat-a-tat-tat in the distance and the gentle chirp close by, it’s nice to have my coffee outside once again and listen to the woods waking up in the morning. Green stubbles are sprouting in the gardens, bringing such joy. The deer didn’t get my daffodils this year, and specks of yellow are sprinkled about the garden borders. Everything will sprout up quickly, and soon those swelling buds will shed their soft shells, and the woods will be filled with luscious spring greens and their transparent colors will be everywhere. Every critter seems to be pairing up. The woodpecker keeps tap tap tapping.

  Featured image: Imagination “In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Featured image: It's A Beautiful Morning Isn’t it glorious watching and listening to spring arrive, not only in our hearts but also in actually watching Mother Earth come alive. Wonderful, wonderful Mother Earth. Red buds, like the flowers that come first before the leaves on the oak trees. Spring green ferns uncurling, stretching like a small baby waking from a nap. Birch trees adding that lime green that can’t be called anything but lime green, so translucent with zigzag edges. All things in the woods are dancing with the gentle breeze and basking in the warmth of the spring sun and blue, blue sky. Isn’t it glorious watching and listening to spring arrive.

  Featured image: Spot of Red Freedom comes when you adapt to change. It begins by getting used to the very idea of change. Change is discovery. Change is growth. Change is exciting when you release the past and embrace whatever comes your way.” — Peggy Magovern

  Featured image: Celebrate Innovation "Art is never finished, only abandoned" - Leonardo da Vinci

  Featured image: Your Inner Compass How do we measure our soul? Is it with a tape measure, a scale, weights? How do we measure our soul? The Bible, the Koran, other holy books? How do we measure right from wrong—good and bad? How do we measure our soul? We can’t see our soul to measure it. And we really don’t know what our soul is—or what it looks like—do we? Just what is a soul? For me… my soul is the glue that holds me together… it is my spirit. “Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Those were the words from the first prayer I ever learned to pray to God when my mom and dad tucked me in at night. I learned the word soul even before I understood what it meant. What is my soul? It is the glue that holds me together. It is the precious thing that is just mine. Can it be measured? Mine can’t. AI’s overview states: “The soul is generally defined as the immaterial essence, consciousness, or an...

  Featured image: At Peace “A work of art is a declaration of freedom.” — Oskar Schlemmer

  Featured image: Trusing Her “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.” — Georgia O’Keeffe

  Featured image: Wings To Be Yourself Who I wish to be: An artist. I work hard. I read. I listen. I think. I observe. I trust myself. But does that make me who I wish to be? An artist. I imagine. An artist, for me, sees the invisible, feels the intangible, achieves the impossible, and most importantly, creates originals. But again, I ask myself: Am I that? That which I imagine?

  Featured image: Intersections II “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” — Thomas Merton

  Happy Mother’s Day 💛 Nature has always reminded me of the quiet strength found in motherhood — nurturing, resilient, patient, and endlessly giving. Like the returning seasons or the steady wings of birds in flight, mothers shape the world in ways both gentle and profound. Today I’m thinking with gratitude of all the mothers, grandmothers, artists, caretakers, and women whose love leaves lasting traces in our lives. Wishing you a day filled with beauty, reflection, and love.

Featured image: The Little Green Bird “Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.” — Henry Van Dyke

    Featured image:   Purple Iris purple flower – this talisman holds it all a moment a glance this amulet  of passion  and mystery

Featured image: Hummer V  “I realized that if I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.” — Charles Lindbergh

  Featured image: Sweet Blooms “The earth laughs in flowers.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Featured image: Boating In the vast expanse of life—your life—you have embraced all those challenges that have presented themselves to you. You have cradled, embraced, and protected your life because you believe your life is precious, and you believe you are able to go into these challenges, to experience them, and to be stronger because you have decided to take them on. You realize you are but a droplet in the boundless sea, but you have survived changes before, and you have freed yourself by releasing your burdens and are living unconditionally with love. And love will give you the strength you need.

  Featured image: Canna Lily Listening to nature’s melody, feeling the rhythms of life, observing spring’s growth, and connecting with both heaven and earth, we attune ourselves to both heaven and earth and open the doors to the unrestrained power and energy it brings us, where we can ride its flow and weave ourselves into its tapestry of creation.

  Featured image: Sacred Places Do you ever wonder, where did that thought come from? I don’t, because I say to myself, boy, I’m glad that thought is here. It came at just the right time. I was afraid I was heading down the path of linear thinking, and that is not the path—that just isn’t me. For me, well, I don’t have a name for it, but it is my inner spirit, and it always helps me and is there for me no matter what. And most important, it listens to me. Recently I have been on the path of imagination. Many urge me to take the path of logic and not the path of creative energy, but for me that path really doesn’t seem to work. I continually run into roadblocks, but I continue to try to knock them down. Has anyone ever done that—taken a path of logic when you should have taken the one of your creative thoughts? Have you come to the point where you no longer want to work with that thought? I have, and it is very hard to move away from it. It is hard to. Has anyone ever done that to o...

  Featured image: I Come to the Garden Alone “ Sweet sweet holy as the day begins ”  ~CEA

  Featured image: Kissed by the Sun watching the light move and change flooding the woods emerging day

  Featured image: Going for a Ride (3-D Sculpture) “Art is a personal creation by an individual. It brings something into existence that did not exist before, and it would not have existed except for the unique contributions of the individual who created it.” — Ayn Rand

  Featured image: Straight From the Heart I  cherish life I  cherish love I  come to bring peace to be and love to the world and to you love of life to this little part of the world then  I  will be happy I   come so you can reclaim your personal  connection with the earth and with your spirit I  come so that you can deepen your connection  to benefit yourself a nd to others. So you can  pass it on.

  Featured image: First Robin Have you seen your first robin yet? I saw mine a couple of weeks ago. So exciting, because for me that means that spring is just around the corner. But wait—what is this? Snow yet again. Oh dear, all those wonderful birds coming back. I know that they know how to stay warm when they get caught in a snowstorm, but humans, once they shed their winter coats, there is no turning back. At the same time I saw my first robin, I saw a human walking into the grocery store in shorts and flip-flops. There was no way he was going back to a winter coat. No way. And he wasn’t the only one. Gosh, he has to be cold—and he does not have whatever those birds have to keep them warm. Silly people. I had my hat on, boots, lined pants, a sweater, and a winter coat, and I was still cold. Happy spring.

  I’m honored to share that my work, Wolf—Don’t Fence Me In , has been accepted into Collage Artists of America’s Freedom Reframed exhibition . I’m deeply grateful to juror Shannon Currie-Holmes and to Collage Artists of America for including this piece in a show that centers on freedom, perspective, and the many ways we reframe our experiences. For as long as I can remember, my work has circled around the real, the imagined, and freedom , so it feels especially meaningful to have this piece included in an exhibition built around those ideas. Wolf—Don’t Fence Me In speaks to something I return to again and again in my work—the longing for freedom, the untamed spirit, and the quiet strength of what refuses to be contained. Nature has always been my greatest teacher, and the wolf, like the bird, carries a presence that is both symbolic and deeply felt. It reminds us of instinct, endurance, and the wild inner life that remains intact despite the fences we encounter. The exhibitio...

  Featured image: Intersections I Continuing Monday’s question about imitation and originality, I’ve realized that it’s difficult to talk about origins. Instead, I think about creation. I create from what already exists—from tangible things around me. I don’t invent from nothing. The challenge, then, is not the object itself, but how I use it: how I arrange it, combine it, and mark it with my own ideas. That is where originality lives. Some works merely imitate. They copy. What we are really searching for is the idea. As I begin new work, I feel this tension strongly. I look at where art is going and where I want to go, and I return to one simple desire: I want my work to be free. If it imitates, it isn’t free. If my mark imitates, it isn’t free. I will feel it. I will know. Be ready for the new work. Look for it.

  Featured image: Intersections II How does an artist find inspiration?   Do ideas simply appear in an aha moment? For me, those moments are rare. Most of my inspiration comes from looking—really looking, really seeing. We miss more than we realize. Have you ever walked the same path twice and noticed something new the second time? Or looked at someone and questioned whether their eyes were blue or green? We often see things without fully realizing that we’ve seen them. This way of seeing shapes my work. People frequently ask about the black-and-white bars that appear throughout it. There isn’t a simple answer. They come from my history—from an exhibition I once guided as a museum docent, featuring objects from an African tribe adorned entirely in black-and-white patterns. After seeing that work, I found myself drawn to those patterns as well. Was I copying them? That question comes up often in art, especially around copyright. I recently read about a photographer wrestling wi...

  Featured image: Rotating Earth “Touch the earth and plant your heart into what comforts you.”   CEA

  Featured image: Charting Pathways Commit to the less  trodden path infuse yourself  with uncertainty Exist beyond your  perceptions  and  limits  because there are no limits and there is no  lack Why??????  it is imagined  created Exist beyond  perceptions  and  limits exist beyond the  well-worn  path Commit to the less  trodden path explore  renew  yourself

Featured image: Travelers II measuring imagine the artist, she  wondering, wonder  wandering traveling along fields of wonderful rivers of tears skies of silver mountains of dreams the artist, she measuring imagine creates the journey measuring imagine

  Featured image: Rainbows in My Studio As I sit, I can feel stillness and quietness surround me. The sun appears above the garage roof, and when I look back again to my blank white page, I see rainbows dancing across it. Such a small thing, such a beautiful thing. Such a precious gift, reminding me of the divine and the glorious wonder of simply being in the sun this morning with a cup of coffee, blue sky, and rainbows. I take a deep breath and begin the day.